BREAKING BAD: Visual literacy, Capitalism, Masculinity and More

[Frank W. Baker]

 Praising the show’s “visual literacy,” Derek Hill writes that “it draws on the muscular richness of past masters of the action genre, such as Sergio Leone, John Sturges, Budd Boetticher, Sam Peckinpah, William Friedkin, and Michael Mann, to deliver the goods.”  Later: " Actors in the frame are typically juxtaposed with advertising signs or dwarfed by urban architecture, a sort of primetime visual semiotics....but it’s really about capitalism at its most savage."

[Ann Cox]

If only I could teach this TV show to my high schoolers...this would be an amazing college course.

[Michele Vogt-Schuller]

I love this show, and many of my high school students do as well (although I don't show it in class!). Great assessment of visuals...

About the show: it is about what happens under high capitalism and rampant selfishness.

The premise: high school teacher might leave his family destitute because society will not care for him and help him with his illness

An insane, corrupt society creates sick people (see the Misfit in the Flannery O'Connor story "A Good Man is Hard to Find."

The question: how to find work that will pay?

One of the best scenes is when Mike is cutting up the take for the big drug score into payroll and "pensions" - people who have to be paid - the dealers, drivers and other line employees, and the "retirees" - those in jail whose families need to be cared for. Walter White, recently a victim, now becomes an evil capitalist. He doesn't want to pay his workers because he believes that he should get all the money.

I honestly think this might be the best television show of all time.

[Gigi]

I teach a college class in high school and I do not show Breaking Bad in class--and I always give options on a television series, but I take a different spin.  Machiavelli is the text being read, and what they must accomplish is to pull out the assertions on what makes a productive leader.  When this is accomplished, the students then compare it to a television series.  Breaking Bad is always popular and makes for an interesting read.